Hi, I’m Mike Mulvey.

My goal is to collaborate with talented teams of designers and thinkers to produce great work (in SF & LA). That sounds simple but it's not. ¶ First off, the most important question: Why would you hire me? ¶ You would hire me if you needed an identity designed, a brand refreshed, a mobile app designed, a brand workshop run, or a website designed. ¶ You'd hire me if you needed someone to mentor and manage a team of designers. ¶ You'd hire me if you also needed someone to work along side this team in Sketch, Principle, InVision, Photoshop, Keynote, and Illustrator (throw an application at me and I'll figure it out). ¶ You'd hire me if you needed someone to work on a project from conception, through execution, to launch. ¶ You'd hire me if you wanted a designer who could talk to developers and technologists. ¶ I've been doing all these things for over 18 years. ¶ Have a look at my work and contact me if you want to talk.

Secret Origins

I launched The Combustion Chamber in the spring of 2001 after reading a small book my father had given me called, A Power Primer. In simple terms, the book explained the fundamentals of how engines work.

The spark for me came in the chapter on ignition (heyoo):

Our third necessity is ignition. By that we mean that something must start the fuel and air burning in the top of the cylinder, or combustion chamber.

The combustion chamber. What a word. And the 4-stroke cycle of the engine? A perfect analogy to the creative process. Intake is gathering resources, reading, absorbing, watching, analyzing. Compression is taking the resources and analyze and distilling it all into sketches and designs. Combustion is meat of it. The creation. The execution. The controlled explosions inside the chamber. Finally we have Exhaust. The venting. Self-reflection and critique.

... and the process continues.

When I'm not combusting here, you can find me at Daily Exhaust, where I've been blogging since 2006.